The broken arm/wrist of Albert Pujols is expected to shelve him for 4-6 weeks. Can he use this time to lift his self-imposed season-long suspension of contract negotiations with the St. Louis Cardinals?
Yahoo's Jeff Passan not only says "Why not," he spells out, per suggestion from an agent (not Pujols' Dan Lozano) what would be good parameters for such a deal:
One agent not involved in the negotiations helped lay out the framework for a potential deal that would behoove both sides: eight years, $224 million – or $28 million a year, a record for a long-term contract. For the next three seasons, as Pujols remains in his prime and the Cardinals continue to churn out good, young, cheap players, he would receive $32 million a year. For the two seasons after that, his salary would dip to $29 million. The final three would represent the drop-off as he ages and, in concert with projected inflation, not look nearly as bad toward the end: $27 million, $24 million, $19 million.
The $32M puts him above A-Rod on a single-season basis, checking off the Pujols (and Lozano) ego boxes. If this needs to be tweaked, the Cards could do some lifetime incentive add-ons for 3K hits, 500 HRs, etc., like the Yanks are with Derek Jeter.
True, it's more than the Cards' brain trust wants, and on a per-year basis, much more than it offered before the start of the season. But, the team knows just how much he means. And, as Passan notes, since his early slump, since May 1, he's led MLB in home runs while striking out just three times.
A no-brainer. If Pujols, Lozano and Bill DeWitt/John Mozeliak have brains.
If it's not ideal, tweak it. Cut back a bit more on the salary after the first two "ego" years, add in this career incentives, cut one guaranteed year but add two option years to get Albert to a full 40.
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